


Exploding, Blinding Lights

by amtrak12



Series: Tumblr Inspired Ghostbusters Works [1]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 04:58:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8358262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amtrak12/pseuds/amtrak12
Summary: On this side of the vortex, up is down and down is forwards, and the only thing Erin knows for sure is Abby and how she's getting closer but is still so terrifyingly out of reach.
  A look into Erin's POV during the portal scene.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Inspired Series is a collection of one-shots inspired by comments made around Tumblr because I found these comments far too creative to ignore. :)
> 
> This piece was inspired by the remark "It was in the script". Incredibly, this _was_ in the script. We were truly so blessed by this movie. Title comes from the song "Forest Fires" by Bastille because it makes me think of everything that could've gone wrong during this portal scene (or the break up, you know, whichever angsty yatesbert scene is in my head at the time :P) Hope you enjoy!

From the second Abby is grabbed by Rowan, time slows to a grinding halt.

00:00.5 seconds: Rowan's feet fly over Erin's head as Rowan is pulled into the closing portal.

00:00.6 seconds: Patty screams Abby's name.

00:01.0 seconds: Rowan's gone, and Erin registers there's only three people left standing on the street.

_Abby._

00:01.1 seconds: Breathe in.

Rowan has Abby inside the portal. He's taken her.

00:01.2 seconds: Breathe out. Be sliced open on the shards of glass her chest has become at this realization.

_Abby._

00:01.3 seconds: The portal is closing with Abby inside. She has to get inside. _Erin has to get inside._

Turn. Look.

00:01.6 seconds: Firetruck overturned. Rope uncoiling into the street.

Rope.

Time speeds up again. Erin can sense it; she's all too aware of time spiraling away from her.

_Get the rope. Get Abby. Get the rope._

00:02.8 seconds: At the last moment she remembers to tie the rope to her belt before looping it around her waist and hooking it secure.

00:03.0 seconds: She's running.

"Abby, hang on! I'm coming!"

00:03.2 seconds: Deafening sounds; chaos -- like the rushing of a river's torrent just before it tips over the cliff's edge, and causing a roaring in her ears and a pounding in her lungs as she sprints towards that ever-shrinking portal entrance.

"Hang on, Abby!"

00:04.0 seconds: She dives.

Blinding red light giving way to swirling green. The disorienting sense of no longer feeling the effects of gravity, but still falling... falling... falling....

Rowan is below -- ahead. She can see his fist still charred by her earlier shot and now clenched tightly around a squirming Abby.

_Abby!_

The leap of her heart is met with a twisted grin from Rowan. Everything inside her boils down into hot, tight stone.

She hates him. Worse than those tormenting kids back in school, worse than her neighbor's ghost. Worse than her former grad advisers, neither of which ever really had faith in her work, even the one who hadn't known about her paranormal research. She hates him worse than her bosses, her colleagues, all of the people who've ignored her, questioned her, tried to discredit her when all she's ever done is work hard (so hard) and attempted to fit in, to be normal.

Erin hates Rowan more than anyone because he took Abby. Abby who is the best and bravest and most loyal person she has ever known. Abby who has been her best friend since they were sixteen years old, even during those years they didn't talk because no one -- no one -- has ever understood her or been there for her like Abby has.

And Erin hates Rowan for trying to take her from her. She's lost Abby once before through her own fault. She's lived with that pain and gutting loneliness that -- after eighteen years and ten months of testing -- decidedly never goes away. She's not living like that again. Not now, not after she finally got Abby back.

_00:05.0 seconds_

She pulls out her proton gun. Aims. Hits him square in the hand.

He lets go.

Now, Abby's falling too -- or she's being flung? Erin doesn't know the difference anymore because on this side of the vortex, up is down and down is forwards, and the only thing she knows for sure is Abby and how she's getting closer but is still so terrifyingly out of reach.

_"Abby!"_

Hands. Collision. Erin's fingers dig in tight, desperate not to let go. She stares hard at Abby, the sight of her and the texture of Abby's coveralls beneath her fingertips the only proof she has that Abby is here, that she has her.

"Erin."

The tight stone in her chest spools off into tendrils of numbing relief. She smiles.

"I wasn't going to leave you twice."

Abby smiles back. The numbing relief expands, because Abby's here, she's safe, Erin has her in her hands.

She grips Abby's arms tighter just to be sure -- and thank goodness, because at that moment the rope tightens at her waist. They're both jerked roughly in the other direction.

"Hold on!"

Whirling, swirling green and red light. That roaring torrent again. A spark. A momentarily lost grip they manage to recover.

00:06.1 seconds: Flying -- backwards this time as gravity reclaims them -- and then they hit ground. The proton pack slams hard against Erin's back, the gun whips into her head, but she keeps her grip on Abby. She's not letting go this time; nothing's going to make her let go.

00:06.4 seconds: The movement stops. Physical pain sets in. Erin slowly blinks open her eyes.

Sunlight. Tall glass windows glinting in the sunlight and arching up into the sky.

It's definitely not inside the vortex.

They both groan as the move to stand up. Somehow Holtzmann pops up right in front of her, and Patty's noticing Abby's hair -- no her hair -- no, it's both of them. Traveling into that portal somehow turned their hair white.

That this is both the first concrete fact Erin can grasp and the only remaining proof that they ever went anywhere or fought anything now that they're standing in bright sunshine surrounded by buildings made new -- it strikes her as funny. She laughs. Abby laughs too, and then they're leaning into each other for a hug that's -- clunky, actually, because proton packs were not made for hugging -- but also incredibly relieving, like... like....

Well, like learning your best friend forgives you for abandoning them, like receiving confirmation that ghosts are in fact real after all these years and decades of being told they're not.

Like successfully rescuing the most important person in your life from a fate worse than death.

She pulls back. Takes in the sight of Abby once again, whole and smiling and eyes still glistening with unshed tears. The relief settles into something weightier. Warmer.

When their gazes meet, that feeling burns suspiciously like love.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr @ amtrak12


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